The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

NameDrop, a celebrity social network, wants to sell the real thing

In Hollywood, we've all been trained to salivate at the sight of that red velvet rope that separates the A-listers from, well, everyone else.

Today, a celebrity social media site called NameDrop launched its own version of the velvet rope. For $2.99 a month, subscribers get access to celebrity status updates, blog posts and photos.

The site's owner, Ted Foxman, in November sold his company, Eagle Test Systems, to Teradyne for $360 million. The Chicago entrepreneur poured some of that money into creating NameDrop.

The site currently features content from a dozen celebrities, including Cat Cora, the first female Iron Chef, music producer David Foster, and Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions. See the full list here.

Why pay money when you can find out Demi Moore's views on slavery for free on Twitter? NameDrop believes fans will pay good money to know what the celebrities are really thinking as opposed to what their impostors are saying. Working in NameDrop's favor is an insatiable thirst for celebrity news.

But as most content sites know, it's hard to compete with free -- even when you are dangling the velvet rope.